


Good Intentions

by Raptorlily



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Canon In-Between Scene, Episode Tag, F/M, Mention of Grundy/Archie, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-27
Updated: 2017-04-27
Packaged: 2018-10-24 15:57:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10744956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raptorlily/pseuds/Raptorlily
Summary: An in-between scene for 1.04 where Jughead grapples with the fallout of not being completely honest with Betty about a certain Archie situation.





	Good Intentions

“Hey, so, I drafted a tribute article to the Twilight,” Jughead announced as he walked into the _Blue & Gold_ offices before homeroom on Thursday morning. “I’m think we can run it as page one, with the flyer as an insert.”

He dropped the said print-outs on the desk next to Betty’s elbow and watched as long, white-polished tipped fingernails paused over the laptop keyboard. In the barest of acknowledgements, green eyes coolly skated over the proffered compositions.

“ _’Rebel Without a Cause_ ,’” Betty read aloud. “Huh.”

 “Yeah, uh, I decided I’d go with your pick.” Jughead rubbed the back of his neck uncertainly.  He wasn’t sure why, but he suddenly felt like he was giving something away. He honestly thought it was a good suggestion, but he also realized he was hoping for a reaction. A shy smile. A sparkle in her eye.

Anything other than the one he got.

“Too bad,” Betty replied and her gaze flicked up to pierce him. “Should’ve gone with _the Graduate_.”

“Aw crap,” Jughead face-palmed.

He _knew_ that nothing good would come out of Betty confronting Archie at Pop’s last night about Mrs. Grundy's car. He tried to stop her but she slipped out of the booth as slick as a bar of soap, and Veronica, ever eager for a bite of gossip, bounced out right after her.

Then, it was all over. Scandalized faces and dramatic gesticulating between the three of them in the parking lot outside. It ended, absurdly enough, with Alice Cooper showing up. Betty got into the car with her mother; Archie came back inside to share a horrendously awkward meal with his secret lover/music teacher and his dad, while Jughead was forced to run damage control with Kevin and Veronica back at their booth.

And if _that_ weren’t punishment enough, their dueling banjos-esque attempts to out-snark one had him considering the merits of scraping out an escape route with his spoon. 

He hadn't anticipated Archie tossing him under the bus.  

“I can’t believe you!” She pushed away from her desk and stood up to full height. She was shorter than him by about a head and slighter in frame, but Betty Cooper always been a scrapper. She gave Reggie a bloody nose in seventh grade just for teasing him about his beanie and Jughead nervously took a step back. “You _knew_ about Archie and Grundy and you didn’t say anything!”

“Hey,” he held up a palm, trying to placate her. “Keep your voice down.” He glanced meaningfully over at the door and walked over to close it before walking back. “Just because I didn’t say anything to you doesn’t mean I condone what’s happening.”

“There’s two types of people in the world, Jug. People who do bad things and people who watch bad things happen and don’t do anything about it!”

 “OK, don’t misquote _Mean Girls_ at me.” Jughead jammed a knuckle into his eye. “Not after we agreed to keep Doiley’s secret in exchange for the information. You know as well as I do that if this were to blow up, Archie would get caught in the back-draft.”

 “That’s not the point!” Betty rounded on him. “What _else_ aren’t you telling me?”

“I had a crush on you in fifth grade,” he deadpanned, hoping to diffuse her anger. “I don’t anymore.”

_Lie._

The look she gave him was incendiary. She raised her hands, fingers curling into her palms and she looked like she couldn’t decide between smiling at him, smacking him or strangling him.

“I meant pertinent to the case, you jerk!” she exclaimed, dropping her arms, exasperated. Then, after a deep cleansing breath, as she added, much more softly: “We’re supposed to be _partners_ , Juggie. You just sat there after Doiley dropped that bomb on us and you didn’t think to tell me.”

 “Yeah, but it wasn’t exactly _my_ secret to tell now, was it?”

 “Everyone’s got secrets.” Betty sighed. “That’s why we’re here. We’re trying to uncover them to find Jason’s killer.” She stepped closer, forcing him to meet her gaze. Her proximity, her body heat, the cloyingly sweet scent of her dessert-scented shampoo and the look of utter disappointment in her eyes gathered into a weird mass inside his chest.  “We’re supposed to trust each other,” she said earnestly. “I trusted _you_ the other night.”

She had opened up to him about Polly, her parents, and for one maddening moment, it was on the tip of his tongue to tell her about the truth about the drive-in and just why he was so upset about its closing.

But it was only for a moment. 

 “OK, fine, you’re right.” Jug exhaled heavily and broke away to pace over to the bookshelves lining the back wall. There was no way he could even explain his situation without unpacking all of it—a box within a box within a box. It could fill the room and squeeze everything else out. And it really wasn’t about him right now.  “It’s just—it’s _Archie_ , y’know?”

Even before puberty bludgeoned him over the head and he gained the size and mass he did this summer, Archie was always the guy who put himself between Jug and his bullies in middle school. Sure, he got distracted sometimes and he occasionally needed things to be spelled out clearly, but he was _there_. Jug knew he only needed to ask.

Why he h _adn’t_ been asking lately….

Well, that was complicated and maybe not entirely Arch’s fault. It was—some—but Jughead couldn’t lay it _all_ at his ol’ pal’s door.

“Yeah, I do know,” Betty deflated, perching on the edge of the long desk. “I can’t believe he’d get involved in something like this. It’s so… _not_ like him.”  

Jughead pressed his lips together and thought of Ginger Lopez, Joanie Ryan and the whole parade of girls that had at one time or another been on Archie’s arm; how often Arch tempted fate by sneaking around with Midge Klump. Although it was no secret that Moose had other proclivities, due to his size and temper, anyone with a healthy self-preservation instinct was reluctant to pursue his long-term girlfriend.

Which naturally included everyone, apart for Reggie and Archie.

Still, Grundy was perhaps Archie’s stupidest decision yet.

“Arch always had more luck than brains with girls,” Jug said. He then tensed, his tongue lolling around in his mouth the second he realized what that must have sounded like.

Betty’s eyes snapped to his face.

 “Ah, I mean—not that this thing with Grundy is lucky, in any shape, way or f-form,” he amended. Only morons like Reggie Mantle would think sleeping with a much older woman was a badge of honor. “It’s just that—well, y’know. He’s always got some girl or another tripping over herself for his attention and…”

Betty looked away with a pained expression and Jug’s face scrunched up as his mouth flooded with the taste of foot.    _Keep digging, idiot._

“Betty, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean—”

“It’s fine,” she said stiffly, rubbing her arm in a self-soothing gesture. God, this whole situation must’ve been so awful for her.  “Just… tell me that you at least tried to talk him out of it.”

 “Of course, I did.” Jug frowned, feeling a flicker of annoyance. Whether that was at her for suggesting he wouldn’t care, or at Archie for putting them all in this situation in the first place, he couldn’t tell. “He said he was going to end things once he went to Weatherbee about the gunshot. I guess he’s still working up to it.”

He _hoped_ he was still working up to it.

“I hate that he did that,” Betty was fiddling with the ring on her thumb. “There’s no reason why _she_ couldn’t have gone to Keller and left Archie out of it.” She glanced at Jughead and pressed her lips into a frown. “She’s manipulating him, Jughead. She _must_ be. What kind of sick, twisted individual gets involved with a minor and encourages him to lie to the police?”

“The kind that doesn’t want to get caught.”

 “Exactly. Maybe she has a police record; maybe she doesn’t want them to be looking at her too closely.”

“If there was _anything_ on her in the system, I highly doubt she’d be working at a school.”

Betty rounded on him. “Why aren’t you more alarmed by this? If the roles were reversed, if it was a grown _man_ with a teenage girl—”

“Hey!” In two strides, Jughead was next to her, catching her by the wrist. There was a slight crackle in the air between them as she fiercely whirled around to face him, but he ignored it, looking her in the eye. “It’s the exact same,” he said. “It _is_ bad. You think I haven’t told him all this? You and I both know that if anyone tells Archie he can’t do or have something, he digs in heels. He won’t listen to reason.”

“Yeah, well, maybe he wouldn’t listen to _your_ reason, but he will listen to _mine_.” Betty crisply slung her backpack over one shoulder and draped her jacket over her arm, heels ticking as she marched for the door. “I will  make him listen to me because I’m going to do whatever it takes to convince him that what he’s doing is dangerous.”

_I’m going to convince him that he’s with the wrong person._

She didn’t say it, but it was there.

Jughead’s heart squeezed in his chest. “Betty— “

She paused, her hand on the door knob. “We’re still best friends, Jug.” The way she said _best friends_ held tears. Everything else held together solid and confident, but _best friends_ throbbed and ached. “Archie may have broken my heart, but we’re still best friends. I’m not going to let him get hurt.”

**Author's Note:**

> Another random scene I wrote once upon a time as an in-between. 
> 
> Thoughts and comments always welcome.


End file.
